Gil&i 


ALIFO% 


OJITi 


SALLY  ANN'S 
EXPERIENCE 


SALLY  ANN'S 


EXPER  ENCE 


ELIZA   CALVER1      3ALL 


AUTHOR  OF  "AUNT  JANE  OF  KENTUCKY," 
"THE  LAND  OF  LONG  AGO,"  ETC. 


With  Frontispiece  by 
G.    PATRICK  NELSON 


And  Decorations  by 
THEODORE  B.  HAPGOOD 


BOSTON 

LITTLE,  BROWN,  AND   COMPANY 
1910 


Copyright,  1898, 
BY  JOHN  BRISBANE  WALKER. 


Copyright,  1907,  1910, 
BY  LITTLE,  BROWN,  AND  COMPANY. 


Introduction 


I 


WHY  I  WROTE   "SALLY  ANN'S 
EXPERIENCE"1 

N  writing  "Sally  Ann's  Experience,"  my 
purpose  was  to  show  the  iniquity  of  the 


1  Condensed  from  the  article  published  in  The 
Cosmopolitan  Magazine,  July,  1908,  with  the  following 
Note  by  the  Editor:  "The  great  popularity  of  'Sally 
Ann's  Experience '  is  undoubtedly  due  to  the  fact  that 
its  theme  is  a  matter  that  'has  touched  directly  or  in 
directly  the  life  of  nearly  every  woman.' 

"Although  it  is  ten  years  to  a  month  since  the  tale 
first  appeared  in  the  Cosmopolitan,  and  it  now  stands  as 
the  first  chapter  of  'Aunt  Jane  of  Kentucky,'  demands 
for  the  issue  (long  out  of  print)  of  the  magazine  contain 
ing  it  come  into  this  office  with  remarkable  regularity. 

"This  unusual  degree  of  popularity  has  led  the 
author  to  tell  why  she  wrote  the  story.  We  have  no 
doubt  that  every  reader  of  the  very  interesting  account 
of  the  genesis  of  'Sally  Ann's  Experience'  will  wish  to 


Introduction 

old  common  law  of  England  in  regard  to 
the  property  rights  of  married  women. 

In  Kentucky,  under  this  old  common  law, 
a  husband  could  collect  and  spend  his  wife's 
wages.  Marriage  gave  to  the  husband  all 
the  wife's  personal  property  that  could  be 
reduced  to  possession,  and  the  use  of  all  her 
real  estate  owned  at  the  time  or  acquired 
by  her  after  marriage,  with  power  to  rent 
the  same  for  not  more  than  three  years  at 
a  time  and  receive  the  rent. 

By  the  common  law  of  courtesy  and 
dower  the  husband  on  the  death  of  the  wife 
inherited  all  personalty  not  hitherto  reduced 
to  possession,  and  when  there  were  children, 
he  inherited  a  life  interest  in  all  her  real 
estate;  while  the  wife,  when  there  were 
children,  inherited  only  one-third  of  her 

read  or  re-read  the  famous  story.  For  their  conve 
nience,  as  well  as  on  account  of  the  above-mentioned 
continual  demand,  we  reprint  the  tale,  with  the  pub 
lisher's  permission,  after  the  author's  narrative." 


Introduction 

husband's  personalty  and  a  life  interest  in 
one-third  of  his  real  estate  possessed  during 
marriage. 

Moreover,  in  1888,  at  the  time  the  agita 
tion  for  reform  began,  Kentucky  was  the 
only  State  in  the  Union  where  a  married 
woman  could  not  make  a  will. 

Unless  she  was  made  a  feme  sole,  no  mar 
ried  woman  could  buy  or  sell  with  the  free 
dom  of  the  single  woman.  To  be  made  a 
feme  sole  legal  proceedings  under  a  general 
act  of  the  legislature  were  required,  and  even 
this  relief  could  not  be  had  unless  the  hus 
band  gave  his  consent. 

Instances  of  the  injustice  of  the  law  came 
to  my  notice  from  every  part  of  Kentucky 
and  prompted  me  to  write  "Sally  Ann's  Ex 
perience."  The  story  made  a  two-years' 
pilgrimage  from  one  magazine  to  another, 
and  was  finally  accepted  and  published  by 
the  Cosmopolitan  in  1898.  Not  many 


Introduction 

weeks  after  its  publication  in  this  country, 
it  reappeared  in  a  woman's  paper  in  far-off 
New  Zealand,  and  to-day  there  is  not  an 
English-speaking  country  where  Sally  Ann 
has  not  told  her  experience. 

The  Woman's  Journal  of  Boston  has 
published  the  story  three  times,  and  each 
time  the  edition  containing  it  has  been  ex 
hausted.  "Sally  Ann's  Experience"  was 
made  the  initial  story  in  my  book  issued  in 
1908  under  the  title  of  "Aunt  Jane  of  Ken 
tucky,"  and  a  few  months  later  President 
Roosevelt,  in  the  course  of  a  speech,  recom 
mended  the  use  of  the  story  "  as  a  tract  in  all 
families  where  the  men  folks  tend  to  selfish 
or  thoughtless  or  overbearing  disregard  of 
the  rights  of  their  womankind."  Then, 
through  the  Ladies'  Home  Journal,  Sally 
Ann  preached  her  gospel  to  a  million  readers. 
In  July,  1908,  ten  years  from  the  date  of 
its  first  publication,  the  Cosmopolitan  re- 


Introduction 

published  the  little  tale.  Selections  from  it 
have  been  used  for  eleven  years  by  dramatic 
readers  and  teachers  of  elocution.  In  1899 
a  noted  platform  reader  wrote  as  follows 
to  me: 

"I  read  the  sketch  almost  a  year  ago,  and  since 
then  I  have  read  it  about  thirty  times  before  au 
diences  of  all  kinds.  Whether,  as  on  one  occa 
sion,  when  the  audience  numbered  five  thousand, 
or  before  a  select  club,  'Sally  Ann's'  reception 
is  always  the  same.  There  are  tears  for  poor 
'Lizabeth  and  peals  of  laughter  and  rounds  of 
applause  as  'Sally  Ann'  piles  up  her  points.  I 

read  it  every  day  for  a  week  at Chautauqua, 

and  the  committee  that  waited  on  me  to  arrange 
for  the  lecture  course  next  winter  said :  '  We  have 
but  one  request  to  make  of  you ;  you  must  give  us 
"Sally  Ann's  Experience."' 

Platform  readers  are  not  the  only  ones 
who  have  recognized  the  dramatic  qualities 
of  the  sketch.  More  than  one  playwright 
has  made  application  for  permission  to 


s 


Introduction 

dramatize  the  story,  and  Sally  Ann  may 
some  day  deliver  her  message  in  a  drama. 

In  my  scrap-book  there  are  letters  from 
the  North,  the  South,  the  East,  and  the 
West;  from  young  and  old,  high  and  low; 
from  the  cultured  and  the  uncultured;  from 
doctors,  lawyers,  editors,  business  men,  and 
women  in  various  walks  of  life,  all  endors 
ing  Sally  Ann,  and  thanking  her  for  giving 
her  experience.  And  the  letters  still  come, 
both  to  me  and  to  the  Cosmopolitan,  though 
it  is  nearly  twelve  years  since  the  first  publi 
cation  of  the  story. 

What  is  the  reason  for  this  popularity? 
There  is  no  glamour  of  romance  about  this 
little  story,  no  fine  rhetoric,  no  startling  plot 
or  unusual  incident.  It  is  only  a  plain  tale 
of  plain  people  told  in  the  plain  dialect  of  a 
plain  old  woman. 

In  making  up  the  incidents  that  composed 
Sally  Ann's  prayer-meeting  talk,  I  drew 


Introduction 

largely  on  my  imagination,  and  I  feared  that 
I  had  made  out  an  exaggerated  case  against 
the  men  folks  of  Goshen.  But  I  have  learned 
since,  from  readers  far  and  wide,  that  every 
incident  in  my  story  may  be  duplicated  over 
and  over  from  real  life,  and  I  am  forced  to 
the  conclusion  that  "Sally  Ann's  Expe 
rience"  is  in  some  degree  the  experience  of 
nearly  every  married  woman;  and  as  long 
as  the  spirit  of  the  old  English  common  law 
survives  in  man,  the  financial  relations  be 
tween  husband  and  wife  will  continue  to  be 
a  theme  certain  of  touching  the  universal 
heart. 

The  story  has  already  lived  beyond  the 
allotted  time  of  such  fiction.  Some  critics 
say  it  is  a  classic  and  will  never  die.  Should 
this  be  true,  it  will  be  because  it  is  a  human 
document,  the  chronicle  of  an  ancient  wrong 
that  has  touched  directly  or  indirectly  the 
life  of  nearly  every  woman.  And  as  a  geol- 


Introduction 

ogist  can  from  one  fossil  construct  the  life  of 
a  whole  period,  so  the  sociologist,  generations 
hence,  may  read  in  this  story  a  record  of  the 
time  when  tyranny  and  selfishness  put  on  the 
mask  of  chivalry  and  laid  a  mailed  hand 
upon  the  rights  of  woman,  when  woman's 
growing  self-respect  made  her  rise  in  revolt, 
and  out  of  her  conflict  and  her  victory  came 
a  higher  civilization  for  the  whole  world. 


Xll 


SALLY  ANN'S 
EXPERIENCE 


Sally  Ann's  Experience 


ME  right  in  and  set  down.  I 
was  jest  wishin'  I  had  some 
body  to  talk  to.  Take  that  chair 
right  by  the  door  so  's  you  can  get 
the  breeze." 

And  Aunt  Jane  beamed  at  me  over 
her  silver-rimmed  spectacles  and 
hitched  her  own  chair  a  little  to  one 
side,  in  order  to  give  me  the  full 
benefit  of  the  wind  that  was  blowing 
softly  through  the  white-curtained 
window,  and  carrying  into  the  room 
the  heavenliest  odors  from  a  field  of 
clover  that  lay  in  full  bloom  just 
across  the  road.  For  it  was  June  in 


i) 


Sally  Ann's  Experience 

Kentucky,  and  clover  and  blue-grass 
were  running  sweet  riot  over  the  face 
of  the  earth. 

Aunt  Jane  and  her  room  together 
always  carried  me  back  to  a  dead  and 
gone  generation.  There  was  a  rag 
carpet  on  the  floor,  of  the  "hit-or- 
miss"  pattern;  the  chairs  were  an 
cient  Shaker  rockers,  some  with 
homely  "shuck"  bottoms,  and  each 
had  a  tidy  of  snowy  thread  or  crochet 
cotton  fastened  primly  over  the  back. 
The  high  bed  and  bureau  and  a  shin 
ing  mahogany  table  suggested  an  era 
of  "plain  living"  far,  far  remote  from 
the  day  of  Turkish  rugs  and  Japanese 
bric-a-brac,  and  Aunt  Jane  was  in 
perfect  correspondence  with  her  en 
vironment.  She  wore  a  purple  calico 
dress,  rather  short  and  scant;  a  ging- 


Sally  Ann's  Experience 

ham  apron,  with  a  capacious  pocket, 
in  which  she  always  carried  knitting 
or  some  other  "handy  work" ;  a  white 
handkerchief  was  laid  primly  around 
the  wrinkled  throat  and  fastened  with 
a  pin  containing  a  lock  of  gray  hair; 
her  cap  was  of  black  lace  and  lute 
string  ribbon,  not  one  of  the  butterfly 
affairs  that  perch  on  the  top  of  the 
puffs  and  frizzes  of  the  modern  old 
lady,  but  a  substantial  structure  that 
covered  her  whole  head  and  was  tied 
securely  under  her  chin.  She  talked 
in  a  sweet  old  treble  with  a  little  lisp, 
caused  by  the  absence  of  teeth,  and 
her  laugh  was  as  clear  and  joyous 
as  a  young  girl's. 

"Yes,  I'm  a-piecin'  quilts  again," 
she  said,  snipping  away  at  the  bits 
of  calico  in  her  lap.  "I  did  say  I 


Sally  Ann's  Experience 

was  done  with  that  sort  o'  work;  but 
this  mornin'  I  was  rummagin'  around 
up  in  the  garret,  and  I  come  across 
this  bundle  of  pieces,  and  thinks  I, 
*I  reckon  it's  intended  for  me  to 
piece  one  more  quilt  before  I  die;' 
I  must  'a*  put  'em  there  thirty  years 
ago  and  clean  forgot  'em,  and  I've 
been  settin'  here  all  the  evenin'  cut- 
tin'  'em  and  thinkin'  about  old  times. 
"Jest  feel  o'  that,"  she  continued, 
tossing  some  scraps  into  my  lap. 
"There  ain't  any  such  caliker  now 
adays.  This  ain't  your  five-cent  stuff 
that  fades  in  the  first  washin'  and 
wears  out  in  the  second.  A  caliker 
dress  was  somethin'  worth  buyin' 
and  worth  makin'  up  in  them  days. 
That  blue-flowered  piece  was  a  dress 
I  got  the  spring  before  Abram  died. 


Sally  Ann's  Experience 

When  I  put  on  mournin'  it  was  as 
good  as  new,  and  I  give  it  to  sister 
Mary.  That  one  with  the  green 
ground  and  white  figger  was  my 
niece  Rebecca's.  She  wore  it  for 
the  first  time  to  the  County  Fair  the 
year  I  took  the  premium  on  my  salt- 
risin'  bread  and  sponge  cake.  This 
black-an'-white  piece  Sally  Ann  Flint 
give  me.  I  ricollect  't  was  in  black 
berry  time,  and  I'd  been  out  in  the 
big  pasture  pickin'  some  for  supper, 
and  I  stopped  in  at  Sally  Ann's  for 
a  drink  o'  water  on  my  way  back. 
She  was  cuttin'  out  this  dress." 

Aunt  Jane  broke  off  with  a  little 
soprano  laugh. 

"Did  I  ever  tell  you  about  Sally 
Ann's  experience?"  she  said,  as  she 
laid  two  three-cornered  pieces  to- 


Sally  Ann's  Experience 

gether  and  began  to  sew  with  her 
slender,  nervous  old  fingers. 

To  find  Aunt  Jane  alone  and  in 
a  reminiscent  mood !  This  was 
delightful. 

"Do  tell  me,"  I  said. 

Aunt  Jane  was  silent  for  a  few  mo 
ments.  She  always  made  this  pause 
before  beginning  a  story,  and  there 
was  something  impressive  about  it.  I 
used  to  think  she  was  making  an  in 
vocation  to  the  goddess  of  Memory. 

"'Twas  forty  years  ago,"  she  be 
gan  musingly,  "and  the  way  of  it 
was  this.  Our  church  was  consider 
ably  out  o'  fix.  It  needed  a  new  roof. 
Some  o'  the  winder  lights  was  out, 
and  the  floor  was  as  bare  as  your 
had  been.  The 


Sally  Ann's  Experience 

shingled  and  the  winders  fixed,  and 
us  women  in  the  Mite  Society  con 
cluded  we'd  git  a  cyarpet.  We'd 
been  savin'  up  our  money  for  some 
time,  and  we  had  about  twelve 
dollars.  I  ricollect  what  a  argu 
ment  we  had,  for  some  of  us  wanted 
the  cyarpet,  and  some  wanted  to 
give  it  to  furrin  missions,  as  we'd 
set  out  to  do  at  first.  Sally  Ann  was 
the  one  that  settled  it.  She  says 
at  last  —  Sally  Ann  was  in  favor  of 
the  cyarpet  —  she  says,  'Well,  if  any 
of  the  heathen  fails  to  hear  the  gospel 
on  account  of  our  gittin'  this  cyar 
pet,  they'll  be  saved  anyhow,  so 
Parson  Page  says.  And  if  we  send 
the  money  and  they  do  hear  the 
gospel,  like  as  not  they  won't  re 
pent,  and  then  they're  certain  to  be 


Sally  Ann's  Experience 
damned.  And  it  seems  to  me  as 
long  as  we  ain't  sure  what  they'll 
do,  we  might  as  well  keep  the  money 
and  git  the  cyarpet.  I  never  did 
see  much  sense  anyhow,'  says  she, 
'in  givin'  people  a  chance  to  damn 
theirselves.' 

"Well,  we  decided  to  take  Sally 
Ann's  advice,  and  we  was  talkin' 
about  app'intin'  a  committee  to  go 
to  town  the  follerin'  Monday  and 
pick  out  the  cyarpet,  when  all  at 
once  'Lizabeth  Taylor  —  she  was  our 
treasurer  —  she  spoke  up,  and  says 
she,  *  There  ain't  any  use  app'intin' 
that  committee.  The  money's  gone,' 
she  says,  sort  o'  short  and  quick.  *I 
kept  it  in  my  top  bureau  drawer,  and 
when  I  went  for  it  yesterday,  it  was 
gone.  I'll  pay  it  back  if  I'm  ever 


Sally  Ann's  Experience 


able,  but  I  ain't  able  now.'  And 
with  that  she  got  up  and  walked  out 
o'  the  room,  before  any  one  could 
say  a  word,  and  we  seen  her  goin' 
down  the  road  lookin'  straight  be 
fore  her  and  walkin'  right  fast. 

"And  we  —  we  set  there  and 
stared  at  each  other  in  a  sort  o'  dazed 
way.  I  could  see  that  everybody 
was  thinkin'  the  same  thing,  but  no 
body  said  a  word,  till  our  minister's 
wife  —  she  was  as  good  a  woman  as 
ever  lived  —  she  says,  '  Judge  not' 

"Them  two  words  was  jest  like 
a  sermon  to  us.  Then  Sally  Ann 
spoke  up  and  says:  'For  the  Lord's 
sake,  don't  let  the  men  folks  know 
anything  about  this.  They're  always 
sayin'  that  women  ain't  fit  to  handle 
money,  and  I  for  one  don't  want  to 


Sally  Ann's  Experience 

give  'em  any  more  ground  to  stand 
on  than  they've  already  got.' 

"So  we  agreed  to  say  nothin'  about  * 
it,  and  all  of  us  kept  our  promise  ex-  (N 
cept  Milly  Amos.  She  had  mighty 
little  sense  to  begin  with,  and  havin' 
been  married  only  about  two  months, 
she'd  about  lost  that  little.  So  next 
mornin'  I  happened  to  meet  Sam 
Amos,  and  he  says  to  me,  'Aunt 
Jane,  how  much  money  have  you 
women  got  to'rds  the  new  cyarpet 
for  the  church  ? '  I  looked  him 
square  in  the  face,  and  I  says,  'Are 
you  a  member  of  the  Ladies'  Mite 
Society  of  Goshen  church,  Sam 


Amos  ?     For  if  you  are,  you  already 


Sally  Ann's  Experience 

says  I,  *  there's  some  women  that 
can't  keep  a  secret  and  a  promise, 
and  some  that  can,  and  I  can.'  And 
that  settled  him. 

"Well,  'Lizabeth  never  showed  her 
face  outside  her  door  for  more'n  a 
month  afterwards,  and  a  more  pitiful- 
lookin'  creatur'  you  never  saw  than 
she  was  when  she  come  out  to  prayer- 
meetin'  the  night  Sally  Ann  give  her 
experience.  She  set  'way  back  in 
the  church,  and  she  was  as  pale  and 
peaked  as  if  she  had  been  through  a 
siege  of  typhoid.  I  ricollect  it  all 
as  if  it  had  been  yesterday.  We  sung 
*  Sweet  Hour  of  Prayer,'  and  Parson 
Page  prayed,  and  then  called  on  the 
brethren  to  say  anything  they  might 
feel  called  on  to  say  concernin'  their 

experience   in   the   past   week.      Old 
11 


Sally  Ann's  Experience 

Uncle  Jim  Matthews  begun  to  clear 
his  throat,  and  I  knew,  as  well  as  I 
knew  my  name,  he  was  fixin*  to  git 
up  and  tell  how  precious  the  Lord 
had  been  to  his  soul,  jest  like  he'd 
been  doin'  every  Wednesday  night 
for  twenty  years.  But  before  he  got 
started,  here  come  'Lizabeth  walkin' 
down  the  side  aisle  and  stopped  right 
in  front  o'  the  pulpit. 

"'I've  somethin'  to  say,'  she  says. 
'It's  been  on  my  mind  till   I   can't 
stand  it  any  longer.     I've  got  to  tell 
it,  or  I'll  go  crazy.     It  was  me  that 
took    that    cyarpet    money.      I    only 
meant  to  borrow  it.     I  thought  sure     IV 
I'd  be  able  to  pay  it  back  before  it     j\ 
was  wanted.    But  things  went  wrong,     [  ] 
and  I  ain't  known  a  peaceful  minute 
since,  and  never  shall  again,  I  reckon. 


12 


Sally  Ann's  Experience 

I  took  it  to  pay  my  way  up  to  Louis 
ville,  the  time  I  got  the  news  that 
Mary  was  dyinV 

"Mary  was  her  daughter  by  her 
first  husband,  you  see.  'I  begged 
Jacob  to  give  me  the  money  to  go 
on,'  says  she,  'and  he  would  n't  do 
it.  I  tried  to  give  up  and  stay,  but  I 
jest  could  n't.  Mary  was  all  I  had 
in  the  world;  and  maybe  you  that 
has  children  can  put  yourself  in  my 
place,  and  know  what  it  would  be  to 
hear  your  only  child  callin'  to  you 
from  her  death-bed,  and  you  not  able 
to  go  to  her.  I  asked  Jacob  three 
times  for  the  money,'  she  says,  'and 
when  I  found  he  would  n't  give  it 
to  me,  I  said  to  myself,  "I'm  goin' 
anyhow."  I  got  down  on  my  knees,' 
says  she,  'and  asked  the  Lord  to 


Sally  Ann's  Experience 

show  me  a  way,  and  I  felt  sure  he 
would.  As  soon  as  Jacob  had  eat 
his  breakfast  and  gone  out  on  the 
farm,  I  dressed  myself,  and  as  I 
opened  the  top  bureau  drawer  to 
get  out  my  best  collar,  I  saw  the 
missionary  money.  It  come  right 
into  my  head,'  says  she,  'that  maybe 
this  was  the  answer  to  my  prayer; 
maybe  I  could  borrow  this  money, 
and  pay  it  back  some  way  or  other 
before  it  was  called  for.  I  tried 
to  put  it  out  o'  my  head,  but  the 
thought  kept  comin'  back ;  and  when 
I  went  down  into  the  sittin'-room  to 
get  Jacob's  cyarpetbag  to  carry  a 
few  things  in,  I  happened  to  look  up 
at  the  mantelpiece  and  saw  the  brass 
candlesticks  with  prisms  all  'round 
'em  that  used  to  belong  to  my  mother ; 

14 


Sally  Ann's  Experience 
and    all    at    once    I    seemed    to    see 
jest  what  the  Lord  intended  for  me 
to  do. 

"'You  know,'  she  says,  'I  had 
a  boarder  summer  before  last  —  that 
lady  from  Louisville  —  and  she 
wanted  them  candlesticks  the  worst 
kind,  and  offered  me  fifteen  dollars 
for  'em.  I  would  n't  part  with  'em 
then,  but  she  said  if  ever  I  wanted  to 
sell  'em,  to  let  her  know,  and  she 
left  her  name  and  address  on  a  cyard. 
I  went  to  the  big  Bible  and  got  out 
the  cyard,  and  I  packed  the  candle 
sticks  in  the  cyarpetbag,  and  put  on 
my  bonnet.  When  I  opened  the 
door  I  looked  up  the  road,  and  the 
first  thing  I  saw  was  Dave  Crawford 
comin'  along  in  his  new  buggy.  I 
went  out  to  the  gate,  and  he  drew  up 

15 


Sally  Ann's  Experience 

and  asked  me  if  I  was  goin'  to  town, 
and  said  he'd  take  me.  It  looked 
like  the  Lord  was  leadin'  me  all  the 
time/  says  she,  'but  the  way  things 
turned  out  it  must  'a'  been  Satan. 
I  got  to  Mary  just  two  hours  before 
she  died,  and  she  looked  up  in  my 
face  and  says,  "Mother,  I  knew  God 
would  n't  let  me  die  till  I  'd  seen  you 
once  more." 

Here  Aunt  Jane  took  off  her  glasses 
and  wiped  her  eyes. 

"I  can't  tell  this  without  cryin'  to 
save  my  life,"  said  she;  "but  'Liza- 
beth  never  shed  a  tear.  She  looked 
like  she'd  got  past  cryin',  and  she 
talked  straight  on  as  if  she'd  made 
up  her  mind  to  say  jest  so  much, 
and  she  'd  die  if  she  did  n't  git  to 


Sally  Ann's  Experience 

"'As  soon  as  the  funeral  was  over,' 
says  she,  'I  set  out  to  find  the  lady 
that  wanted  the  candlesticks.  She 
was  n't  at  home,  but  her  niece  was 
there,  and  said  she'd  heard  her  aunt 
speak  of  the  candlesticks  often;  and 
she'd  be  home  in  a  few  days  and 
would  send  me  the  money  right  off. 
I  come  home  thinkin'  it  was  all  right, 
and  I  kept  expectin'  the  money  every 
day,  but  it  never  come  till  day  before 
yesterday.  I  wrote  three  times  .about 
it,  but  I  never  got  a  word  from  her 
till  Monday.  She  had  just  got  home, 
she  said,  and  hoped  I  had  n't  been 
inconvenienced  by  the  delay.  She 
wrote  a  nice,  polite  letter  and  sent 
me  a  check  for  fifteen  dollars,  and 
here  it  is.  I  wanted  to  confess  it  all 
that  day  at  the  Mite  Society,  but 


Sally  Ann's  Experience 

somehow  I  could  n't  till  I  had  the 
money  right  in  my  hand  to  pay  back. 
If  the  lady  had  only  come  back  when 
her  niece  said  she  was  comin',  it 
would  all  have  turned  out  right,  but 
I  reckon  it's  a  judgment  on  me  for 
meddling  with  the  Lord's  money. 
God  only  knows  what  I've  suffered/ 
says  she,  'but  if  I  had  to  do  it  over 
again,  I  believe  I'd  do  it.  Mary  was 
all  the  child  I  had  in  the  world,  and 
I  had  to  see  her  once  more  before 
she  died.  I've  been  a  member  of 
this  church  for  twenty  years,'  says 
she,  'but  I  reckon  you'll  have  to  turn 
me  out  now.' 

"The  pore  thing  stood  there  trem- 
blin'  and  holdin'  out  the  check  as  if 
she  expected  somebody  to  come  and 

take  it.     Old  Silas  Petty  was  glow- 
is 


Sally  Ann's  Experience 

erin'  at  her  from  under  his  eyebrows, 
and  it  put  me  in  mind  of  the  Phari 
sees  and  the  woman  they  wanted  to 
stone,  and  I  ricollect  thinkin',  'Oh, 
if  the  Lord  Jesus  would  jest  come  in 
and  take  her  part ! '  And  while  we 
all  set  there  like  a  passel  o*  mutes, 
Sally  Ann  got  up  and  marched  down 
the  middle  aisle  and  stood  right  by 
'Lizabeth.  You  know  what  funny 
thoughts  people  will  have  sometimes. 

"Well,  I  felt  so  relieved.  It  popped 
into  my  head  all  at  once  that  we 
did  n't  need  the  Lord  after  all,  Sally 
Ann  would  do  jest  as  well.  It  seemed 
sort  o'  like  sacrilege,  but  I  could  n't 
help  it. 

"Well,  Sally  Ann  looked  all  around 
as  composed  as  you  please,  and  says 
she,  'I  reckon  if  anybody  's  turned 


Sally  Ann's  Experience 

out  o'  this  church  on  account  o'  that 
miserable  little  money,  it'll  be  Jacob 
and  not  'Lizabeth.  A  man  that 
won't  give  his  wife  money  to  go  to 
her  dyin'  child  is  too  mean  to  stay  in 
a  Christian  church  anyhow;  and  I'd 
like  to  know  how  it  is  that  a  woman, 
that  had  eight  hundred  dollars  when 
she  married,  has  to  go  to  her  hus 
band  and  git  down  on  her  knees  and 
beg  for  what's  her  own.  Where's 
that  money  'Lizabeth  had  when  she 
married  you  ? '  says  she,  turnin* 
round  and  lookin'  Jacob  in  the  face. 
'Down  in  that  ten-acre  medder  lot, 
ain't  it  ?  —  and  in  that  new  barn  you 
built  last  spring.  A  pretty  elder  you 
are,  ain't  you  ?  Elders  don't  seem  to 
have  improved  much  since  Susan 
nah's  times.  If  there  ain't  one  sort 
20 


Sally  Ann's  Experience 
o'    meanness    in    'em    it's    another,' 
says  she. 

"Goodness  knows  what  she  would 
'a'  said,  but  jest  here  old  Deacon 
Petty  rose  up.  And  says  he,  'Breth 
ren,'  —  and  he  spread  his  arms  out 
and  waved  'em  up  and  down  like  he 
was  goin'  to  pray,  —  'brethren,  this 
is  awful !  If  this  woman  wants  to 
give  her  religious  experience,  why,' 
says  he,  very  kind  and  condescendin', 
'of  course  she  can  do  so.  But  when 
it  comes  to  a  woman  standin'  up  in 
the  house  of  the  Lord  and  revilin'  an 
elder  as  this  woman  is  doin',  why,  I 
tremble,'  says  he,  'for  the  church  of 
Christ.  For  don't  the  Apostle  Paul 
say,  "Let  your  women  keep  silence 
in  the  church"  ?' 

"As  soon  as  he  named  the  'Postle 


Sally  Ann's  Experience 

Paul,  Sally  Ann  give  a  kind  of  snort. 
Sally  Ann  was  terrible  free-spoken. 
And  when  Deacon  Petty  said  that, 
she  jest  squared  herself  like  she  in 
tended  to  stand  there  till  judgment 
day,  and  says  she,  'The  'Postle  Paul 
has  been  dead  ruther  too  long  for  me 
to  be  afraid  of  him.  And  I  never 
heard  of  him  app'intin'  Deacon  Petty 
to  represent  him  in  this  church.  If 
the  'Postle  Paul  don't  like  what  I'm 
sayin',  let  him  rise  up  from  his  grave 
in  Corinthians  or  Ephesians,  or  wher 
ever  he 's  buried,  and  say  so.  I  've  got 
a  message  from  the  Lord  to  the  men 
folks  of  this  church,  and  I'm  goin' 
to  deliver  it,  Paul  or  no  Paul,'  says 
she.  'And  as  for  you,  Silas  Petty,  I 
ain't  forgot  the  time  I  dropped  in  to 
see  Maria  one  Saturday  night  and 

22 


Sally  Ann's  Experience 

found  her  washin'  out  her  flannel 
petticoat  and  dryin'  it  before  the  fire. 
And  every  time  I've  had  to  hear  you 
lead  in  prayer  since  then  I've  said 
to  myself,  "Lord,  how  high  can  a 
man's  prayers  rise  toward  heaven 
when  his  wife  ain't  got  but  one  flannel 
skirt  to  her  name?  No  higher  than 
the  back  of  his  pew,  if  you'll  let  me 
tell  it."  I  knew  jest  how  it  was,' 
said  Sally  Ann,  'as  well  as  if  Maria 'd 
told  me.  She'd  been  havin'  the  milk 
and  butter  money  from  the  old  roan 
cow  she'd  raised  from  a  little  heifer, 
and  jest  because  feed  was  scarce, 
you'd  sold  her  off  before  Maria  had 
money  enough  to  buy  her  winter 
flannels.  I  can  give  my  experience, 
can  I?  Well,  that's  jest  what  I'm 
a-doin','  says  she;  'and  while  I'm 

23 


Sally  Ann's  Experience 

about  it,'  says  she,  'I'll  give  in  some 
experience  for  'Lizabeth  and  Maria 
and  the  rest  of  the  women  who,  be 
twixt  their  husbands  an'  the  'Postle 
Paul,  have  about  lost  all  the  gump 
tion  and  grit  that  the  Lord  started 
them  out  with.  If  the  'Postle  Paul,' 
says  she,  'has  got  anything  to  say 
about  a  woman  workin'  like  a  slave 
for  twenty-five  years  and  then  havin' 
to  set  up  an'  wash  out  her  clothes 
Saturday  night,  so's  she  can  go  to 
church  clean  Sunday  mornin',  I'd 
like  to  hear  it.  But  don't  you  dare 
to  say  anything  to  me  about  keepin' 
silence  in  the  church.  There  was 
times  when  Paul  says  he  did  n't  know 
whether  he  had  the  Spirit  of  God  or 
not,  and  I'm  certain  that  when  he 
wrote  that  text  he  was  n't  any  more 

24 


Sally  Ann's  Experience 

inspired  than  you  are,  Silas  Petty, 
when  you  tell  Maria  to  shut  her 
mouth/ 

"Job  Taylor  was  settin'  right  in 
front  of  Deacon  Petty,  and  I  reckon 
he  thought  his  time  was  comin'  next; 
so  he  gets  up,  easy-like,  with  his  red 
bandanna  to  his  mouth,  and  starts 
out.  But  Sally  Ann  headed  him  off 
before  he'd  gone  six  steps,  and  says 
she,  'There  ain't  anything  the  matter 
with  you,  Job  Taylor;  you  set  right 
down  and  hear  what  I've  got  to  say. 
I've  knelt  and  stood  through  enough 
o'  your  long-winded  prayers,  and 
now  it's  my  time  to  talk  and  yours 
to  listen.' 

"And  bless  your  life,  if  Job  did  n't 
set  down  as  meek  as  Moses,  and 
Sally  Ann  lit  right  into  him.  And 


Sally  Ann's  Experience 
says  she,  'I  reckon  you're  afraid  I'll 
tell  some  o'  your  meanness,  ain't 
you  ?  And  the  only  thing  that  stands 
in  my  way  is  that  there's  so  much 
to  tell  I  don't  know  where  to  begin. 
There  ain't  a  woman  in  this  church,' 
says  she,  'that  don't  know  how  Mar- 
thy  scrimped  and  worked  and  saved 
to  buy  her  a  new  set  o*  furniture, 
and  how  you  took  the  money  with 
you  when  you  went  to  Cincinnata, 
the  spring  before  she  died,  and  come 
back  without  the  furniture.  And 
when  she  asked  you  for  the  money, 
you  told  her  that  she  and  everything 
she  had  belonged  to  you,  and  that 
your  mother's  old  furniture  was  good 
enough  for  anybody.  It's  my  belief,' 
says  she,  'that's  what  killed  Marthy. 
Women  are  dyin'  every  day,  and  the 


Sally  Ann's  Experience 

doctors  will  tel)  you  it's  some  new 
fangled  disease  or  other,  when,  if 
the  truth  was  known,  it's  nothin'  but 
wantin'  somethin'  they  can't  git,  and 
hopin'  and  waitin'  for  somethin'  that 
never  comes.  I've  watched  'em,  and 
I  know.  The  night  before  Marthy 
died  she  says  to  me,  "Sally  Ann," 
says  she,  "I  could  die  a  heap  peace 
fuler  if  I  jest  knew  the  front  room 
was  fixed  up  right  with  a  new  set  of 
furniture  for  the  funeral."  And 
Sally  Ann  p'inted  her  finger  right  at 
Job  and  says  she,  'I  said  it  then, 
and  I  say  it  now  to  your  face,  Job 
Taylor,  you  killed  Marthy  the  same 
as  if  you'd  taken  her  by  the  throat 
and  choked  the  life  out  of  her.' 

"Mary  Embry,  Job's  sister-in-law, 
was  settin'   right  behind  me,  and  I 


Sally  Ann's  Experience 

heard  her  say,  'Amen!'  as  fervent  as 
if  somebody  had  been  prayin'.  Job 
set  there,  lookin'  like  a  sheep-killin' 
dog,  and  Sally  Ann  went  right  on. 
'I  know/  says  she,  'the  law  gives  you 
the  right  to  your  wives'  earnin's  and 
everything  they've  got,  down  to  the 
clothes  on  their  backs;  and  I've 
always  said  there  was  some  Kentucky 

law  that  was  made  for  the  express 

S 
r  purpose  of  encouragin'  men  in  their 
natural  meanness,  —  a  p'int  in  which 
the  Lord  knows  they  don't  need  no 
encouragin'.  There's  some  men,' 
says  she,  'that'll  sneak  behind  the 
'Postle  Paul  when  they're  plannin' 
any  meanness  against  their  wives, 
and  some  that  runs  to  the  law,  and 
you're  one  of  the  law  kind.  But 
mark  my  words,'  says  she,  'one  of 

28 


Sally  Ann's  Experience 

these  days,  you  men  who've  been 
stealin'  your  wives'  property  and  de- 
fraudin'  'em,  and  cheatin'  'em  out 
o'  their  just  dues,  you  '11  have  to  stand 
before  a  Judge  that  cares  mighty 
little  for  Kentucky  law;  and  all  the 
law  and  all  the  Scripture  you  can 
bring  up  won't  save  you  from  goin' 
where  the  rich  man  went.' 

"I  can  see  Sally  Ann  right  now," 
and  Aunt  Jane  pushed  her  glasses 
up  on  her  forehead,  and  looked  with 
a  dreamy,  retrospective  gaze  through 
the  doorway  and  beyond,  where  sway 
ing  elms  and  maples  were  whis 
pering  softly  to  each  other  as  the 
breeze  touched  them.  "She  had  on 
her  old  black  poke-bonnet  and  some 
ji  black  yarn  mitts,  and  she  did  n't 
come  nigh  up  to  Job's  shoulder,  but 


Sally  Ann's  Experience 

Job  set  and  listened  as  if  he  jest  had 
to.  I  heard  Dave  Crawford  shiifflin' 
his  feet  and  clearin'  his  throat  while 
Sally  Ann  was  talkin'  to  Job.  Dave's 
farm  j'ined  Sally  Ann's,  and  they 
had  a  lawsuit  once  about  the  way  a 
fence  ought  to  run,  and  Sally  Ann 
beat  him.  He  always  despised  Sally 
Ann  after  that,  and  used  to  call  her 
a  *  he- woman.'  Sally  Ann  heard  the 
shufflin',  and  as  soon  as  she  got 
through  with  Job,  she  turned  around 
to  Dave,  and  says  she:  'Do  you 
think  your  hemmin'  and  scrapin'  is 
goin*  to  stop  me,  Dave  Crawford  ? 
You're  one  o'  the  men  that  makes 
me  think  that  it's  better  to  be  a  Ken 
tucky  horse  than  a  Kentucky  woman. 
Many's  the  time,'  says  she,  'I've 
seen  pore  July  with  her  head  tied 


Sally  Ann's  Experience 

up,  crawlin'  around  tryin'  to  cook  for 
sixteen  harvest  hands,  and  you  out 
in  the  stable  cossetin'  up  a  sick  mare, 
and  rubbin'  down  your  three-year- 
olds  to  get  'em  in  trim  for  the  fair. 
Of  all  the  things  that's  hard  to  un 
derstand,'  says  she,  'the  hardest  is 
a  man  that  has  more  mercy  on  his 
horse  than  he  has  on  his  wife.  July 's 
found  rest  at  last,'  says  she,  'out  in 
the  graveyard ;  and  every  time  I  pass 
your  house  I  thank  the  Lord  that 
you've  got  to  pay  a  good  price  for 
your  cookin'  now,  as  there  ain't  a 
woman  in  the  country  fool  enough  to 
step  into  July's  shoes.' 

"But,  la!"  said  Aunt  Jane, 
breaking  off  with  her  happy  laugh, 
—  the  laugh  of  one  who  revels  in  rich 
memories,  —  "what's  the  use  of  me 


Sally  Ann's  Experience 

tellin'  all  this  stuff?  The  long  and 
the  short  of  it  is,  that  Sally  Ann  had 
her  say  about  nearly  every  man  in 
the  church.  She  told  how  Mary 
Embry  had  to  cut  up  her  weddin' 
skirts  to  make  clothes  for  her  first 
baby;  and  how  John  Martin  stopped 
Hannah  one  day  when  she  was  car- 
ryin'  her  mother  a  pound  of  butter, 
and  made  her  go  back  and  put  the 
butter  down  in  the  cellar;  and  how 
Lije  Davison  used  to  make  Ann  pay 
him  for  every  bit  of  chicken  feed, 
and  then  take  half  the  egg  money 
because  the  chickens  got  into  his 
garden;  and  how  Abner  Page  give 
his  wife  twenty-five  cents  for  spend- 
in'  money  the  time  she  went  to  visit 
her  sister. 

"Sally  Ann  always  was  a  master- 

82 


Sally  Ann's  Experience 

ful  sort  of  woman,  and  that  night  it 
seemed  like  she  was  possessed.  The 
way  she  talked  made  me  think  of 
the  Day  of  Pentecost  and  the  gift  of 
tongues.  And  finally  she  got  to  the 
minister !  I  'd  been  wonderin'  all 
along  if  she  was  goin'  to  let  him  off. 
She  turned  around  to  where  he  was 
settin'  under  the  pulpit,  and  says 
she,  *  Brother  Page,  you're  a  good 
man,  but  you  ain't  so  good  you 
could  n't  be  better.  It  was  jest  last 
week,'  says  she,  'that  the  women 
come  around  beggin'  money  to  buy 
you  a  new  suit  of  clothes  to  go  to 
Presbytery  in;  and  I  told  'em  if  it 
was  to  get  Mis'  Page  a  new  dress, 
I  was  ready  to  give;  but  not  a  dime 
was  I  goin'  to  give  towards  puttin' 
finery  on  a  man's  back.  I'm  tired  o' 


Sally  Ann's  Experience 

seein'  the  ministers  walk  up  into 
the  pulpit  in  their  slick  black  broad 
cloths,  and  their  wives  settin'  down 
in  the  pew  in  an  old  black  silk  that 's 
been  turned  upside  down,  wrong 
side  out,  and  hind  part  before,  and 
sponged,  and  pressed,  and  made  over 
till  you  can't  tell  whether  it's  silk, 
or  caliker,  or  what.' 

"Well,  I  reckon  there  was  some 
o'  the  women  that  expected  the  roof 
to  fall  down  on  us  when  Sally  Ann 
said  that  right  to  the  minister.  But 
it  did  n't  fall,  and  Sally  Ann  went 
straight  on.  'And  when  it  comes  to 
the  perseverance  of  the  saints  and 
the  decrees  of  God,'  says  she,  'there 
ain't  many  can  preach  a  better  ser 
mon;  but  there's  some  of  your  ser 
mons,'  says  she,  'that  ain't  fit  for 

34 


Sally  Ann's  Experience 

much  but  kindlin'  fires.  There's 
that  one  you  preached  last  Sunday 
on  the  twenty-fourth  verse  of  the 
fifth  chapter  of  Ephesians.  I  reckon 
I've  heard  about  a  hundred  and  fifty 
sermons  on  that  text,  and  I  reckon 
I'll  keep  on  hearin'  'em  as  long 
as  there  ain't  anybody  but  men  to 
do  the  preachin'.  Anybody  would 
think,'  says  she,  'that  you  preachers 
was  struck  blind  every  time  you  git 
through  with  the  twenty-fourth  verse, 
for  I  never  heard  a  sermon  on  the 
twenty-fifth  verse.  I  believe  there's 
men  in  this  church  that  thinks  the 
fifth  chapter  of  Ephesians  has  n't 
got  but  twenty-four  verses,  and  I'm 
goin'  to  read  the  rest  of  it  to  'em  for 
once  anyhow.' 

"And   if   Sally   Ann   did  n't   walk 

35 


Sally  Ann's  Experience 

right  up  into  the  pulpit  same  as  if 
she'd  been  ordained,  and  read  what 
Paul  said  about  men  lovin'  their 
wives  as  Christ  loved  the  church, 
and  as  they  loved  their  own  bodies. 

"Now/  says  she,  'if  Brother  Page 
can  reconcile  these  texts  with  what 
Paul  says  about  women  submittin' 
and  bein'  subject,  he's  welcome  to 
do  it.  But,'  says  she,  'if  I  had  the 
preachin'  to  do,  I  would  n't  waste 
time  reconcilin'.  I'd  jest  say  that 
when  Paul  told  women  to  be  subject 
to  their  husbands  in  everything,  he 
was  n't  inspired ;  and  when  he  told 
men  to  love  their  wives  as  their  own 
bodies,  he  was  inspired;  and  I'd 
like  to  see  the  Presbytery  that  could 
silence  me  from  preachin'  as  long  as 
I  wanted  to  preach.  As  for  turnin' 


Sally  Ann's  Experience 

out  o'  the  church,'  says  she,  'I'd  like 
to  know  who's  to  do  the  turnin' 
out.  When  the  disciples  brought 
that  woman  to  Christ  there  was  n't 
a  man  in  the  crowd  fit  to  cast  a  stone 
at  her;  and  if  there's  any  man  now 
adays  good  enough  to  set  in  judg 
ment  on  a  woman,  his  name  ain't  on 
the  rolls  of  Goshen  church.  If  'Liza- 
beth,'  says  she,  'had  as  much  com 
mon  sense  as  she's  got  conscience, 
she'd  know  that  the  matter  o'  that 
money  did  n't  concern  nobody  but 
our  Mite  Society,  and  we  women  can 
settle  it  without  any  help  from  you 
deacons  and  elders.' 

"Well,  I  reckon  Parson  Page 
thought  if  he  did  n't  head  Sally  Ann 
off  some  way  or  other  she'd  go  on 
all  night ;  so  when  she  kind  o'  stopped 

37 


Sally  Ann's  Experience 

for  breath  and  shut  up  the  big  Bible, 
he  grabbed  a  hymn-book  and  says : 

"'Let  us  sing  "Blest  be  the  Tie 
that  Binds/" 

"He  struck  up  the  tune  himself; 
and  about  the  middle  of  the  first 
verse  Mis'  Page  got  up  and  went 
over  to  where  'Lizabeth  was  stand- 
in',  and  give  her  the  right  hand  of 
fellowship,  and  then  Mis'  Petty  did 
the  same;  and  first  thing  we  knew 
we  was  all  around  her  shakin'  hands 
and  huggin'  her  and  cryin'  over  her. 
'T  was  a  reg'lar  love-feast ;  and  we 
went  home  feelin'  like  we'd  been 
through  a  big  protracted  meetin'  and 
got  religion  over  again. 

'  'T  was  n't  more  'n  a  week  till  'Liz 
abeth  was  down  with   slow  fever  - 
nervous  collapse,   old  Dr.   Pendleton 

38 


Sally  Ann's  Experience 

called  it.  We  took  turns  nursin'  her, 
and  one  day  she  looked  up  in  my 
face  and  says,  'Jane,  I  know  now 
what  the  mercy  of  the  Lord  is.' ' 

Here  Aunt  Jane  paused,  and  be 
gan  to  cut  three-cornered  pieces  out 
of  a  time-stained  square  of  flowered 
chintz.  The  quilt  was  to  be  of  the 
wild-goose  pattern.  There  was  a 
drowsy  hum  from  the  beehive  near 
the  window,  and  the  shadows  were 
lengthening  as  sunset  approached. 

"One  queer  thing  about  it,"  she 
resumed,  "was  that  while  Sally  Ann 
was  talkin',  not  one  of  us  felt  like 
laughin'.  We  set  there  as  solemn 
as  if  parson  was  preachin'  to  us 
on  'lection  and  predestination.  But 
whenever  I  think  about  it  now,  I 
laugh  fit  to  kill.  And  I've  thought 


Sally  Ann's  Experience 

many  a  time  that  Sally  Ann's  plain 
talk  to  them  men  done  more  good 
than  all  the  sermons  us  women 
had  had  preached  to  us  about  bein' 
'shamefaced'  and  'submittin"  our 
selves  to  our  husbands,  for  every  one 
o'  them  women  come  out  in  new 
clothes  that  spring,  and  such  a 
change  as  it  made  in  some  of  'em ! 
I  would  n't  be  surprised  if  she  did 
have  a  message  to  deliver,  jest  as  she 
said.  The  Bible  says  an  ass  spoke 
up  once  and  reproved  a  man,  and  I 
reckon  if  an  ass  can  reprove  a  man, 
so  can  a  woman.  And  it  looks  to 
me  like  men  stand  in  neeH  of  reprov- 
in'  now  as  much  as  they  did  in 
Balaam's  days. 

"Jacob  died  the  follerin'  fall,  and 
'Lizabeth  got  shed   of  her  troubles. 

40 


Sally  Ann's  Experience 

The  triflin'  scamp  never  married  her 
for  anything  but  her  money. 

"Things  is  different  from  what 
they  used  to  be,"  she  went  on,  as 
she  folded  her  pieces  into  a  compact 
bundle  and  tied  it  with  a  piece  of 
gray  yarn.  "My  son-in-law  was 
tellin'  me  last  summer  how  a  passel 
o'  women  kept  goin'  up  to  Frank 
fort  and  so  pesterin'  the  Legislatur', 
that  they  had  to  change  the  laws  to 
git  rid  of  'em.  So  married  women 
now  has  all  the  property  rights  they 
want,  and  more'n  some  of  'em  has 
sense  to  use,  I  reckon." 

"How  about  you  and  Uncle 
Abram?"  I  suggested.  "Didn't 
Sally  Ann  say  anything  about  you 
in  her  experience?" 

Aunt    Jane's    black    eyes    snapped 


Sally  Ann's  Experience 
with  some  of  the  fire  of  her  long-past 
youth.  "La!  no,  child,"  she  said. 
"Abram  never  was  that  kind  of  a 
man,  and  I  never  was  that  kind  of 
a  woman.  I  ricollect  as  we  was 
walkin'  home  that  night  Abram  says, 
sort  o'  humble-like :  *  Jane,  had  n't 
you  better  git  that  brown  merino 
you  was  lookin'  at  last  County  Court 
day?' 

"And  I  says,  'Don't  you  worry 
about  that  brown  merino,  Abram. 
It's  a-lyin'  in  my  bottom  drawer 
right  now.  I  told  the  storekeeper  to 
cut  it  off  jest  as  soon  as  your  back 
was  turned,  and  Mis'  Simpson  is 
goin'  to  make  it  next  week.'  And 
Abram  he  jest  laughed,  and  says, 
'Well,  Jane,  I  never  saw  your  beat.' 
You  see,  I  never  was  any  hand  at 

42 


Sally  Ann's  Experience 

'submittin"  myself  to  my  husband, 
like  some  women.  I've  often  won 
dered  if  Abram  would  n't  'a'  been 
jest  like  Silas  Petty  if  I'd  been  like 
Maria.  I've  noticed  that  whenever 
a  woman's  willin'  to  be  imposed 
upon,  there's  always  a  man  standin' 
'round  ready  to  do  the  imposin'.  I 
never  went  to  a  law-book  to  find  out 
what  my  rights  was.  I  did  my  duty 
faithful  to  Abram,  and  when  I  wanted 
anything  I  went  and  got  it,  and 
Abram  paid  for  it,  and  I  can't  see 
but  what  we  got  on  jest  as  well  as 
we'd  'a'  done  if  I'd  a-* submitted' 
myself." 

Longer  and  longer  grew  the 
shadows,  and  the  faint  tinkle  of 
bells  came  in  through  the  windows. 
The  cows  were  beginning  to  come 


Sally  Ann's  Experience 

home.  The  spell  of  Aunt  Jane's 
dramatic  art  was  upon  me.  I  began 
to  feel  that  my  own  personality  had 
somehow  slipped  away  from  me,  and 
those  dead  people,  evoked  from  their 
graves  by  an  old  woman's  histrio- 
nism,  seemed  more  real  to  me  than 
my  living,  breathing  self. 

"There  now,  I've  talked  you  clean 
to  death,"  she  said  with  a  happy 
laugh,  as  I  rose  to  go.  "But  we've 
had  a  real  nice  time,  and  I'm  glad 
you  come." 

The  sun  was  almost  down  as  I 
walked  slowly  away.  When  I  looked 
back,  at  the  turn  of  the  road,  Aunt 
Jane  was  standing  on  the  doorstep, 
shading  her  eyes  and  peering  across 
the  level  fields.  I  knew  what  it 
meant.  Beyond  the  fields  was  a 


Sally  Ann's  Experience 

bit  of  woodland,  and  in  one  corner 
of  that  you  might,  if  your  eyesight 
was  good,  discern  here  and  there  a 
glimpse  of  white.  It  was  the  old 
burying-ground  of  Goshen  church ; 
and  I  knew  by  the  strained  attitude 
and  intent  gaze  of  the  watcher  in 
the  door  that  somewhere  in  the  sun 
lit  space  between  Aunt  Jane's  door 
step  and  the  little  country  grave 
yard,  the  souls  of  the  living  and  the 
dead  were  keeping  a  silent  tryst. 


Long  Ago 

By 

ElizaCalvertHall 

Author  of 

"Aunt  Jane  of  Kentucky" 


Illustrated  by 

G.  Patrick  Nelson 

& 
Beulah  Strong 


Boston 

Little, Brown,©  Company 
1909 

12mo.     Decorated  cloth.     $1.50 


THE  LAND  OF 
LONG   AGO 

By  Eliza  Calvert  Hall 
CONTENTS 

CHAPTER 

I.     A  RIDE  TO  TOWN 
II.     THE  HOUSE  THAT  WAS  A  WEDDING  FEE 

III.  THE  COURTSHIP  OF  Miss  AMARYLLIS 

IV.  AUNT  JANE  GOES  A-VISITING 

/ 

V.  THE  MARRIAGE  PROBLEM  IN  GOSHEN 

VI.  AN  EYE  FOR  AN  EYE 

VII.  THE  REFORMATION  OF  SAM  AMOS 

VIII.  IN  WAR  TIME 

IX.  THE  WATCH  MEETING 


Eightieth  ^Thousand 

Aunt  Jane  of  Kentucky 

By  Eliza  Calvert  Hall 

ILLUSTRATED   BY   BEULAH   STRONG 

CONTENTS 

CHAPTER 

I.  SALLY  ANN'S  EXPERIENCE 

II.  THE  NEW  ORGAN 

III.  AUNT  JANE'S  ALBUM 

IV.  "  SWEET  DAY  OF  REST  " 
V.  MILLY  BAKER'S  BOY 

VI.  THE  BAPTIZING  AT  KITTLE  CREEK 

VII.  How  SAM  AMOS  RODE  IN  THE  TOURNAMENT 

VIII.  MARY  ANDREWS'  DINNER  PARTY 

IX.  THE  GARDENS  OF  MEMORY 

I2mo.     Decorated  Cloth.     $1.50 


Eliza  Calvert  Hall's 

Tender  and  charming  pictures  of  rural  Kentucky  life 
evoke  the  deepest  sympathy  from  every  human  heart 
with  which  their  characters  come  in  contact. 

Ex-President  Theodore  Roosevelt  says :  "  Have  you  read  that 
charming  little  book  written  by  one  of  your  clever  Kentucky 
women  —  '  Aunt  Jane  of  Kentucky  '  —  by  Eliza  Calvert 
Hall  ?  It  is  very  wholesome  and  attractive.  Be  sure  that 
you  read  it." 

The  New  York  Times  says  that  "  where  so  many  have  made 
caricatures  of  old-time  country  folk,  Eliza  Calvert  Hall  has 
caught  at  once  the  real  charm,  the  real  spirit,  the  real  people, 
and  the  real  joy  of  living  which  was  theirs.' ' 

The  Louisa  Me  Times  says  that  "  everyone  is  sure  to  love  Aunt 
Jane  and  her  neighbors,  her  quilts  and  her  flowers,  her  stories 
and  her  quaint,  tender  philosophy." 

The  Boston  Woman's  Journal  describes  "Aunt  Jane  of 
Kentucky  "  as  "a  graphic  picture  of  real  life,  portrayed  with 
that  inexplicable  ability  we  call  'genius.'  " 

"Like  the  fragrance  of  old  rose  leaves,"  says  The  San  Francisco 
Chronicle,  "  is  '  The  Land  of  Long  Ago.'  " 

Of  "The  Land  of  Long  Ago,"  The  Boston  Transcript  says  : 
"  To  a  greater  degree  than  her  previous  work  it  touches  the 
heart  by  its  wholesome,  quaint,  human  appeal."  / 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 

Los  Angeles 

This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


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